Cloth Physics hung on pole?
I don't think subdivision and self-collision matters much, even the model size (just don't make them extremely tiny). In fact, subdivision generates even worse artifacts in some cases.

For the "exploding" issue, what matters much is the Distance parameter in Cloth Collision panel for cloth object, and the Outer parameter in Collision panel for the collision object. When the initial gap between the two objects are relatively small, you need to tweak these two parameters specifically so that they will not become "procedually intersecting" before running simulation.

Of course, subdivision will lead to much better result, as long as key parameters like above can be taken good care of. But it doesn't mean other things are trivial. For example, don't forget to apply Scale for object when doing so.



Example File